Sold: January 2014 Heritage Auctions, FUN U.S.

Anybody looking to assemble a complete collection of Liberty Head twenty dollar gold double eagles will need a rather large coin collecting budget to afford this extremely rare coin. Experts believe that the Philadelphia mint only produced three coins and two of them are known to survive. However, the San Francisco mint already struck 19,250 coins for circulation with the S mintmark. Quality experts contended that the rim of the coin was too narrow to protect the design elements and the coin would wear out quickly. In early January 1861, Mint Director James Ross Snowden telegraphed the San Francisco mint with instructions not to use the dies because of a technical flaw. The Philadelphia mint shipped several coin dies to the San Francisco mint to be used in production. The mint director approved the design and die sinkers in Philadelphia produced several sets of coin dies. Paquet attempted to improve the design by producing a modified reverse with taller, narrower letters. James Barton Longacre designed the coin with help from Peter F.

The United States Mint produced twenty dollar gold double eagle coins since 1850. Sold: August 2014 Heritage Auctions, ANA US Coins Signature Auction - Chicago, IL This unique coin is now classified as a ' Specimen Strike' and has the SP designation in the grade. This practice of striking special coins for coin collectors was quite prominent during this time period. It is possible that mint workers did produce a proof coin and failed to record any documentation that it was produced. It is obvious that mint workers used extra care and special processes to produce this coin to give it these extraordinary details. Researchers concluded that no, Proof coins were produced during this time at the New Orleans mint. Originally, numismatists consider this a Proof coin. However, this coin has beautiful details and a reflective surface in the fields. The low-quality of these coins were a result of a low striking pressure. Most twenty-dollar gold coins minted at the New Orleans Mint have soft and mushy details. Any twenty-dollar gold double eagle with this low of a mintage number would make it expensive. The United States Mint created only 2,250 gold double eagles in 1856 at the New Orleans mint. Sold: May 2009 Heritage Auctions, Signature U.S.

Us gold coins list